Menu
Lady Tigers hold off scrappy Neosho team
By Joe Warren
Nevada Herald
There was plenty to celebrate for the Nevada Lady Tigers as they defeated the Neosho Lady Wildcats 54-41 Friday.
Not only was it Courtwarming for the Lady Tigers at Wynn Gymnasium, but one of the Nevada seniors joined an exclusive club.
Lacy Leonard scored her 1,000th career point in the second period and finished with a game-high 20 as the Lady Tigers got their third conference win of the season.
Despite going on a 20-0 run to end the first quarter and start the second, the Lady Tigers (12-3 overall, 3-1 in the Southwest Conference) could not put Neosho away.
Trailing 29-12 going into halftime, Neosho came out with a strong third quarter and cut the Nevada lead to six.
Nevada answered by scoring the first seven points of the fourth period, and Neosho never threatened again.
While the late scoring put the game away, it was the 20-0 run that got Nevada going. Trailing 9-5 in the first quarter, Nevada went on a scoring binge that included three-pointers by Afton Baldwin and Hillary Adams and eight points by Leonard.
Leonard nabbed her milestone with the final basket of the run, and scored 12 of the team's 14 points in the second quarter.
Early in the game back-to-back threes from Baldwin and Adams turned a 9-5 deficit into an 11-9 lead.
Chanelle Braun hit a layup to make it 13-9, and Baldwin hit two free throws to make it 15-9 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter it was the Lacy Leonard show.
Leonard scored twice to make it 19-9, then after a short jumper by Adams, Leonard scored twice more and Nevada led 25-9.
"(Leonard) was moving as well as I've seen her in the first half," Bartlett said.
Leonard joining the 1,000-point club gave Bartlett a lot to be proud of.
"It's tremendous for our program, tremendous for our team, tremendous for her," he said.
At the end of the game Leonard had 1,011 points, and was the seventh Lady Tiger member of the 1,000-point club.
While the offensive achievement received most of the attention Friday, it was defense that gave Nevada the victory.
The Lady Tigers did not allow a field goal in the second quarter, and when halftime arrived, Neosho had not scored from the field since there was 3:44 left in the first quarter.
Only three free throws kept Neosho from being completely shut out during that span.
"It always generates from our defense," Nevada coach Brent Bartlett said. "We did a really good job focusing on our defense. We got running and got some easy shots."
Bartlett has the luxury of having two of the seven members of the 1,000-point club currently on th roster. Leonard joined Adams on the list, giving Bartlett two high-powered threats in the offense.
"It's pretty special having two 1,000-point scorers on the team at the same time," Bartlett said.
Adams was the second-leading scorer for Nevada with nine points. Three other Lady Tigers (Baldwin, Lisa Pendrak and Amanda Wilson) each had seven points.
The Lady Tigers have reached the halfway point in their conference schedule. They host the Lady Tiger Classic next week before getting back into conference action Feb. 8 in a rematch with Neosho.
The Lady Tigers will have their next three conference games on the road as they travel to Neosho, Carthage and McDonald County before closing the conference schedule at home against Webb City.
The Lady Tigers play Kansas City Southeast in the first round of the tournament Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Wynn Gymnasium.